By T. Scott Boatright
Lincoln Preparatory School saw the wheels come off early as turnovers plagued the Panthers all game long in a 44-0 loss at Arcadia Friday night at Hornets Stadium.
The Panthers forced a fumble on the game’s opening series to set themselves up in solid field position as they drove down to the Arcadia 25-yard line.
Lincoln Prep running back Chauncy Harper then broke free and raced to the end zone but fumbled the ball away on the goal line, giving the ball back to the Hornets.
“We never recovered from that,” said Lincoln Prep coach Glen Hall. “That was a big turn there. Then they drove it back down on us and scored. And from then on, it seemed like their scoring never stopped.”
The loss dropped the Panthers to 2-1 while Arcadia climbed to 2-0.
Hall said the Panthers mustered only three or four first downs all night and trailed 38-0 at halftime.
“We had zero good things happen,” Hall said. “We couldn’t get into any rhythm. I think I did a bad job of coaching this week. I’ve got to get better and I’ve got to better prepare my guys. I’ve got to go back into the factory and get it right again.”
The fact that the Panthers were without two-way lineman Jacobie Bedford -— Lincoln Prep’s leader in the trenches -— didn’t help.
Neither did six turnovers,
“We had some bad snaps at inappropriate times,” Hall said. “We gave up two interceptions and fumbled the ball away four times -— Harper’s fumble and three bad snaps on the ground that we lost.
“That’s something we’ve been working on — that center to quarterback exchange. We work hard everyday. But fatigue is something else, and it hit us tonight.
Things won’t get any easier next week as the Panthers play at Jonesboro Hodge, which stands at 0-3 after losing 24-20 at Bunkie Friday night.
“Jonesboro is always good,” Hall said. “Like I told my team, we’ve got to go in and recover. We’ve got to get our fire back. We’ve got to get better. I’ve got to get better. I can promise we’re going to be working on it.
